Microdosing Ibogaine for Parkinson’s: What One Case Study Found

Episode 378

Tobias Erny

In this episode of The Psychedelic Podcast, Paul F. Austin welcomes Tobias Erny, a Swiss iboga practitioner, researcher, and Co-Director of the Global Iboga Therapy Alliance. Tobias shares how ibogaine helped him end his own opiate addiction, and how that recovery grew into two decades of work with iboga, including a published case report on low-dose ibogaine for Parkinson’s disease.

Paul and Tobias explore why ibogaine may help some people living with Parkinson’s, from GDNF, a growth factor that supports dopamine neurons, to its effects on mood and motivation. They also discuss how ibogaine differs from the whole iboga plant, why many patients don’t respond, the medication interactions families should understand first, and why starting low and staying honest about uncertainty matters as research moves toward a clinical trial.

Tobias Erny is a Swiss iboga practitioner and researcher based in Tübingen, Germany. He began his career in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry in Basel, Switzerland, where he first experienced the healing potential of ibogaine in 2006. Intrigued by its possibilities, he committed to extensive research and work with the molecule, and in 2008 began working with the traditional plant medicine iboga. He is initiated into the Dissoumba-Fang tradition of Bwiti and regularly visits Gabon to deepen his understanding. With Nachtschattenverlag, publisher of Albert Hofmann and Stanislav Grof in the German-speaking world, he published the German standard reference on iboga, organized conferences, and lectured on the subject. He serves as Co-Director of the Global Iboga Therapy Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about iboga and its alkaloids, and is lead author of a 2026 case report on low-dose ibogaine for Parkinson’s disease in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies.